Successful meter defenses allow the meter to be read, but not removed. The meter belongs to the utility, but the enclosure is – after all – your property. If PG&E or another utility damages your property to force their incredibly stupid meters on to your home, they will be liable.
More ideas: Page 1; Page 3; Page 4; Page 5
These are examples of enclosures built by residents to protect analog meters from theft by agents of the utility (such as Wellington Energy). Electric meter above, gas below. People have also used upside-down rubber coated dish drainers with brackets and locks and chains to defend their analogs. When the installer comes, (unless you stop him) the electric meter is popped off and replaced and a small rectangular device is affixed to the front of your existing gas meter.
Of course if you control access to the meter and the reader doesn’t have a key, you can refuse access entirely. Make sure everyone knows to refuse access if you live in an apartment! They will hop over fences and sneak around, waiting for you to leave. They especially like to intimidate elderly people, who (they think) won’t stand up for their rights. They will try to blag their way in anyway they can.
Don’t let them!
Remember, you have a right to refuse installation. Don’t believe the threats. No one has had their electricity switched off for refusing a smart meter, and no one has had to pay one cent in fines. Utilities have an easement to read the meter, but no one has a right to invade your privacy, risk your safety, and subject you to health damaging radiation against your will. Especially not a corporation or compromised state regulatory agency.
Don’t delay- build your meter shelter today- otherwise you might come home to find an unwelcome gift from (Or)Wellington!
Those are good designs to protect your meter. Note that only the meter is locked, very good. The safety disconnect and the main load center cannot be locked for many reasons.
In an emergency, the customer and/or the first responders need to cut the power to a building, that is the first thing that they are instructed to do. In many older installations there is no main disconnect, so what the fire dept. does is either turn off the main circuit breaker in the main panel, and if there is none, then they turn off all the circuit breakers in the main panel.
Most people live their entire lives without having a fire in their house, but shit happens, and I have had to go to houses that had a fire to do electrical inspections and repairs. It is very ugly and it stinks .
I am very well versed on the National Electrical Codes (NEC) and also the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes. There are height requirements and clearance requirements for meters and load centers. There is NO code that states that a private property owner must allow a power company to install their proprietary communication transmitters on private property, but the main panel if mounted outside of a building must be accessable to the owner or fire personal in an emergency.
Really important, if you still have your analog meter, you must expend some time and materials to protect it. To build a simple enclosure for your meter, you don’t have to use redwood, you can use less expensive wood.
The cost of constructing an enclosure is far less than allowing PG&E come in and install a new meter, then pay them to allegedly disable a supposedly disabled transmitter, and start charging you a rate surcharge and a meter reading fee that has already been built into your rates forever and a day. They can’t raise your rates if you don’t allow them to put in a new meter, that is the bottom line.
Wouldn’t a combination meter-housing + honeybee-house be a grand idea?
After all, America’s honeybees are endangered and need all the help we can give them!
That’s a grand idea!! (except for two things) The utilities certainly do not deserve any honey- and analog electrical meters actually have a not-insignificant electrical field of their own- not good for the bees! -SSM
What a great idea to protect those intruders from getting your analog meters.
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What about help in PA?? They were here today. I told them NO and they left. But they said they will be back…They continued to do house after house here without asking! 1 door bell ring was all it was…seconds later i got outside to see her trying to put the new meter in!! Is there HOPE IN THE OPT OUT BILL MOVING???
Re: Opt out bill – From a post on patch.com, Tom McCarey wrote, “Robert Godshall, Chair of House Consumer Affairs Committee, refuses to release three bills, HB899, Hb902, HB 906 because he does not see any value in them. He received $28,100 in campaign contributins from utilities, and his son, Grey, has been promoted to manager of PECO’s smart meter program.
http://patch.com/pennsylvania/abington/how-smart-is-this#.VCr9qkZXpAm
http://votesmart.org/candidate/campaign-finance/9143/robert-godshall#.VCr-skZXpAl